OSCE SMM Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Hug: There is hope. There is some progress - last week we saw agreement allowing for repair of the wooden ramps at Stanytsia Luhanska Bridge. Progress can be made. Bridges can be built. Peace can be restored. Ukraine

OSCE's Hug: As winter came, sides still no closer to opening additional entry-exit checkpoints, no closer to ending violence. We see more violence; less implementation of Minsk agreements. It's time to put people first; to implement Minsk in full. It's time for peace Ukraine

OSCE SMM Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Hug: Situation in east Ukraine is volatile and can escalate at any moment - this week between 17.00 on Monday and 17:00 on Tuesday, our monitors recorded approximately 3,000 ceasefire violations – almost half of them explosions

OSCE SMM Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Hug: Steady increase in no. of ceasefire violations – almost 20,000 ceasefire violations recorded last week, up 25 % on previous week. It was the highest weekly number we've recorded since March Ukraine

Putin enters a long monologue, touching upon history and culture, with the aim to prove that Russians and Ukrainians are one people. Claims that Ukraine in its present form was "for whatever reasons" created by the Bolsheviks.

Putin: "There are no Russian army groups [in east Ukraine]. But there are militia groups who are ready to counter a major offensive in Donbas." He then claims if it weren't for them and separatists, Ukrainian nationalist battalions would massacre locals "worse than in Srebrenica."

And answering this Ukrainian journalist's question Putin,looking pissed off, just offended Bashkiria and Ukraine in one line."Ukraine, in its mentality is not as far from Bashkiria as it is geographically or as you might think."putinpresser

Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbalyuk asks Putin whether he will authorize full swap of POWs in eastern Ukraine and continue to pursue his "absurd policy" regarding peacekeepers; tells him fighters under his control in Donbas are massacring people. (Russian journos boo.)

Ukrainian customs officers bust an Israeli citizen with "special spices" (their actual words to describe 20 grams of cocaine) mixed in with a bag of French fries carried on flight from Tel Aviv to Odesa.

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